DEERFIELD VALLEY- Hurricane Sandy was a killer storm, but Vermont and the Deerfield Valley dodged the bullet this time.

Hurricane Sandy’s fury was concentrated on the coast, battering residents of southern New England, New York, and New Jersey. On Wednesday, the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce asked the community to step forward and help visitors and local second-home owners from the storm-stricken areas, in recognition of the generosity demonstrated by many second-home owners and New York and New Jersey residents after Tropical Storm Irene devastated the Deerfield Valley. “It’s time for our community to support our second-home owners as they face what can only feel like an impossible task. Please consider what you can do to ‘pay it forward’ like so many did for us.”

Local residents were braced for the worst when the storm blew through the valley Monday evening, but on Tuesday morning there was no serious damage or flooding to report. Most of the damage around the valley was from trees that had been blown down. In Dover, the Ski Home Realty office at Seasons was damaged when a large tree fell, damaging the roof of the building, the deck, and the entryway.

A year after Irene flooded their village, Wilmington officials worked to make sure they were as prepared as possible for Sandy. The town held several planning and briefing sessions starting on Thursday, October 25. During the storm, the town activated its CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), but no emergency ever materialized, and they were sent home Tuesday morning.

Town manager Scott Murphy said the Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at Twin Valley High School Monday night, but nobody stopped in to take advantage of it.

“The only damage reported to us was a few trees down on Coldbrook Road,” Murphy said. “The road crew went out first thing Tuesday morning and cleared it all away.”

No flooding was reported in Wilmington. Wilmington Wastewater Treatment Plant operator John Lazelle recorded 2.28 inches of rain from the hurricane on Tuesday morning. Murphy said an ANR engineer touring the flood zone on Tuesday remarked that the water had stayed within the banks of the Deerfield. “I think the river got as high as eight feet on the official marking (on the Parmelee & Howe building) and quickly went back down to six-and-a-half feet,” Murphy said. “It could have been a lot worse for us.”

There were several power outages reported around the valley, including an outage for more than 1,100 people in parts of Halifax, Whitingham, and Wilmington. One Shearer Hill Road resident reported that power hadn’t been restored to the neighborhood until Wednesday.

More than 36,000 Green Mountain Power customers lost power during the storm. According to Green Mountain Power, 22,500 of their customers lost power on Monday. Service to half of those who had lost power was restored by 8 pm Monday evening. Despite the high winds and driving rains, line crews were on the job even in the height of the storm. GMP said the worst damage Monday evening was in Bennington, Windham, Rutland, Washington, and Windsor counties.

SkiHome Realty is still in business managing a variety of real estate including 30 condos, a dozen houses and 150 acres of land. The real estate sales part of the business is now affiliated with Vermont Country Properties Sotheby's International Realty.

The building is one of the oldest in Dover, dating back about 200 years to when this part of town was actually Somerset. Repairs are expected to be complete within a week. The large sugar maple, also 200 years old, will make good firewood next year, keeping the office warm and cozy.